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Saturday, September 29, 2012

If you’re a fan of unit studies, then you’re really going to enjoy Box
of I.D.E.A.S. It is literally that—a box full of 10 -12 standalone Ideally Dynamic Enrichment Activities
on one particular subject. The subject
we were chosen to review was “salt”.
Yes, salt—the element necessary for human life—and almost anything you wanted
to know about it was contained in this kit.

Each lesson is labeled in its own large Ziploc bag and
everything needed (minus a few household items, including salt) is contained
within. We chose several of the activities
that looked like the most fun and starting doing one per day during our science
time.

Some of the lessons were most definitely geared
for middle school to high school students, but we did find several that worked
for 4th-grade-level science. Here are the different ways salt is studied in this one box:

The History of Salt

The Science of Salt

Preserving with Salt

Salt of the Earth

The Salt March

The Need for Salt

The Wall that Salt Built

Too Much Salt

Where Salt Lives

The Language of Salt

Abbey has become a label reader now, thanks to the lesson "The Need for Salt". During this lesson, she was asked to research the amount of sodium found in our daily diet and keep track of it. She raided our pantry, looking for every label she could find. We were
both very surprised by some of the sodium levels in the food in there. Without totally confessing how
much junk food we eat, I will tell you this: Sprite has more sodium than Vanilla Coke. Who knew?? The nice, wipe-off food log and dry erase marker were included in the lesson. Here’s how her daily log of food looked that day:

One of the other fun activities, again with all things
included inside the bag, was "Preserving with Salt". It included a fast-paced board game called "SALT."
The object of the game was to collect the “S”, “A”, “L”, and “T” cards
before your opponent did. In order to
earn a letter, you had to roll the dice and answer the question about salt on
the space on which you landed. We both
learned some fun facts about how many ways salt is used for preservation purposes from playing this game. There were more than a sufficient number
of question cards included, so playing the game a second or third time would
not have the players seeing the same questions over and over. Abbey was quite pleased when she beat her mama in this game.

Our favorite lesson to date is "The Science of Salt" lesson. This one contained three Ziploc
bags, one was labeled “Control”, and the other two came with instructions to
label them “Rock Salt”, and “Ice Melt”. There were also bags of actual rock salt and ice melt included.
We filled the three empty Ziploc bags halfway up with water and waited for
them to freeze. We then poured rock salt
in one, ice melt in one, and nothing in the control bag.

Then we started the timer for 10 minute
increments and recorded the amount of water that melted after each interval. As you can see from the chart
below, rock salt was the star of the party. Our hypothesis was that ice melt would win. We were wrong. :)

Bottom Line: I like having everything at my fingertips with
the individual bags. I love the quality of the materials provided and I very much like that the kit
will allow me to use the lessons for many years to come with Abbey. Each lesson has web links and book
suggestions that brought several of the harder lessons to life for her. There is even an SAT-type test for the entire box to make sure the student grasped all the material covered.

I can appreciate the time it took to
put together each kit. The only criticism I have is that I would like to
see a little more clearer instructions on some of the lessons, as a couple had us scratching our heads trying to determine the best way to use the provided materials, but overall this is a wonderful investment to
save you a TON of time and headaches! It has made me love unit studies even
more than I did before!

Details: The retail price for the Box of I.D.E.A.S. Salt Kit: $79 for the physical box, $49 for the PDF download, and $4 for extra student modules.

Other subjects offered by them: World War II, Pine, Olives, Laundry and more!!

Best ages with which to use: 3rd grade and up

Don't just take my word for it, check out what my fellow homeschooling bloggers thought about this and other Box of I.D.E.A.S. subjects by clicking the banner below!

Disclaimer: I was given this product in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.

Mix all the ingredients except rolls, butter and bread crumbs together. Spread 2 - 3 TBS of mixture on each roll and wrap up. Place them all on a large, greased cookie sheet. Brush each one with a little butter and sprinkle a few bread crumbs on top. Bake at 325 degrees for 18 - 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes--IF you can wait that long--and enjoy!

I was out of bread crumbs, so I made mine without the topping. And the reason you see a space there on the pan--I ate one before I remembered to take the photo!

You will probably have a lot of the filling left over, but it is great on crackers and even on croissants, bagels or sandwiches, and it keeps for up to week in the fridge. Later, gators!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

I got a speeding ticket last week on my way back home from the
vet’s office.Those who know me well
know this is not a total shocker, as I have always had a bit of a lead
foot.But I got the stinking thing in
the EXACT same place by the EXACT same police officer that I got my last one,
some four years ago.No lie.

You see, there’s this hill, right outside of
Evergreen on the back road towards home, that I always coast down.I am beginning to rethink that whole coasting thing. . .at least not
on the hills that fall within Evergreen City Police jurisdiction. Mmmm
hmmm.

My husband was not thrilled with me, of course. As I was driving home after being pulled
over, I was dreading talking to him and was trying to think of how to justify
it—err….defend it.I started thinking about
how many speeding tickets I had gotten since I narrowly passed my
license test at age 16 years old.The short
answer is too many! I’ve gotten six in that time period so that
averages out to about one every four years.Ugh! Is that above or below the national average?

The point that really struck me though, as I was driving very
s-l-o-w-l-y the rest of the way home and trying to overcome the nausea that had found its way into my belly, was what a terrible example I was setting for my nine-year-old daughter
and six-year-old dachshund about how NOT to obey authority. Well, okay so maybe
Bonnie wasn’t as affected by this as Abbey was, but still. I should not have been driving so fast. And I confessed my shame to Abbey. I know it's important for her to see her parents not be perfect.

Almost every day in our homeschooling life, Abbey and I are in a
constant tug of war.It’s me asking her
to “Get started,” “Get back to work,” “Stay focused,” “Stop dawdling,” “Stop
playing with the dogs,” “Focus focus, focus!” It is a battle of obedience; a
battle of the wills.And ultimately, I
am trying to teach her that obeying your
parents is the first form of learning to obey the Lord, and the Lord
expects us all to obey the laws set before us, both Biblically and governmental.Laws and boundaries are there for our safety.Although one could argue that 40 mph on a
straight, back road in the country is not exactly a realistic boundary. *Sigh*

And oh my goodness, I have sped through too many of God’s
laws in my life because I thought I knew better than He.I thought I could control my actions and
could be completely okay in doing so.I
am still paying for some of those choices of disobedience, because even when we
are repentant, we still have to walk out the consequences of our sins.But God in His mercy has still lavished
blessing upon me and is allowing me to experience mercy in ways I could have
never imagined. . .

I called the municipal court to find out about my court date
because I couldn’t even read the ticket that had been written to me—apparently legible
handwriting is not a requirement of being a police officer, but I digress.The clerk of the court told me I could go
before the judge and ask for defensive driving school, but there was a chance I
would lose and have to pay extra fees above and beyond my ticket fees. [Greaaaat.] Then he asked me the oddest thing: “Do you
give blood?” I was like, “You mean to the Red Cross? Yes, sir. I just gave some
last month.”“Good, let me see if I can
set you up a meeting with our local prosecutor prior to your court date. He
often allows you to give a pint of blood in exchange for the ticket.”I couldn’t believe my ears!But he was dead serious.I am actually meeting with that lawyer in a couple of
weeks to ask if my blood is enough to pay for my sin.I am praying that it is, as our budget has
zero room in it for such fees I will have to pay if I lose.But how odd of a sentence is that? And
how much clearer of a picture could I get about the beauty of the cross??!!!

Without having to meet with a prosecutor first, Jesus allows
me to go before the Judge without fear.He
gave ALL his blood to cover ALL my sins—even exceeding the speed limit on a
back country road in the middle of nowhere.

I am a very blessed soul and of this I am fully aware.

"The plan was that He give himself as an offering for sin so that He’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.And God’s plan will deeply prosper through Him." Isaiah 53:10

Thursday, September 13, 2012

My animal-loving nine-year-old could NOT wait to get this set of DVDs! Because it arrived just as we started to get
our new school year going, I was able to incorporate watching them into our
science lesson plan for the first week.
I allowed Abbey to watch 15 -20 minutes per day of the videos.

We started with the LOTS and LOTS of Penguins in the Wild DVD. At first, when she put
in the video, she was like, “Hey! There’s no narration or music!” But after watching it for a few minutes, she
became so enthralled with the raw video and the close-up views of the animals
in their natural habitat, she totally forgot what she was missing. She kept pausing the video and rewinding it
to show me something she thought was "cute" or "hilarious" or "amazing."

From the Marshall Publishing website I printed off the
supplemental information about each penguin being shown. There is a title for each sequence of video,
so we knew which penguin we were watching.
We really did have fun discussing the height and weight of each penguin
and its habitat. “Mama! Did you know
there are penguins that are only 16” tall?!!!” It also amazed her that the big
sea lions were laying around some of these penguins and they weren’t bothering
the penguins. It is so fun to watch her
take delight in the world God has created, as I am sure He does, too.

The second DVD, calledLOTS and LOTS of PLAYFUL PENGUINS and their TOE-TAPPIN' HAPPY FEET, was
met with a lot of enthusiasm as well.
She loved the little animated character that guides them through the
video, and she liked the music video feel of this one. When I wasn’t looking one night, she carted this
one off to her room to ‘party like a penguin’ in private. (Hee-hee).

There is a bonus DVD included in this set, called Party like a Penguin, had us dancing around the house for
days on end. Such a catchy tune! That one was fun stuff for all ages!

Abbey’s Bottom
Line Review: After viewing both videos, I asked
Abbey which one she liked better. She
said, “Although the second one was fun with its music and narration, I liked
the first one better because of the close-up views we got to see of the
penguins.” I was
a little surprised, but then I realized that all that Hollywood glitz and glamour are not
necessary to educate our children. They
really are so much smarter than we, or Hollywood, give them credit for.

April’s Bottom
Line: While I really enjoyed watching
Abbey enjoy these videos, I think the “In the Wild” DVD could stand just a wee
bit more editing, and I would love to see the informational guides to each
species included in PDF format on the actual DVD itself, rather than having to
go out to their website to find it. But
other than those two issues, I am very happy we were chosen for this review!

Best Ages for which
to purchase: Early to Middle Elementary, but older children and parents will enjoy as well.

Price: Retails for $39.90
if purchased separately, but only $19.95 for package of two DVDs and a bonus
music video DVD. That’s a great deal!

Special FREE
Shipping Coupon: TOS27 (no expiration
date!)

Other Titles by Marshall
Publishing (for all varying ages) can be found here! It is worth it to explore their site to see the
HUGE list of DVDs they offer and take advantage of the free shipping
coupon---these DVDs make wonderful, unique Christmas presents!

And, please, please
take time to see what other TOS Schoolhouse Review Crew members thought about
it here!

Disclaimer: I did receive these videos at no charge in
exchange for my honest opinion and review, however, no other compensation was
given.